Sunday, September 18, 2011

This Hurricane season has certainly been one to remember. With the first near strike in Cocoa Beach being Hurricane Irene.

The week prior I was at home in Connecticut with my family and lovely girlfriend Chelsey Pletts watching the hurricane skirt the east coast of our fine state, anticipating the epic conditions I would be returning to.

I flew home to Cocoa Beach Wednesday night and thursday was going to be the big day. With seas double to triple overhead I knew I was in for a wild ride. Billy Bosch(my roomate) had class that morning so I woke up at 7 and hit the beach solo. the smallest kite I have is a 2008 9m Naish Torch.
I pumped her up and launched with winds around the 20-30 knot range. Now This isn't a kite that i normally ride since the winds here on the East coast of Florida normally dont exceed the 20mph mark but today was a very special day.

The Ocean looked mean with an ominous gray sky and a great deal of movement in the sea I jumped in to play in one of my favorite conditions; strong wind and big waves.

I knew that Mikey Walsh from the Otherside Boardshop in the Keys, and Matt Sexton would be coming through to ride with us, so I decided to stay in front of the crib kiting just south of the pier while I waited for them to arrive.

I was approached by a photographer for the Orlando Sentinel and he got a few good shots of me while I was out on my twin tip. you can see more of thouse photos here: OliB I also did a short interview with News Channel 3 Cocoa Beaches local news channel, but I have yet to see it.

at around 10:30 I put my kite down and went home to grab some water and a bite to eat. I couldn't stomach the food I had bought in the morning due to the sheer adrenalin pumping through my veins. Now was a different story I was hungry and needed my battery to be recharged.

As i was eating thinking of the amazing rest of the day to come billy walked in the house stoked on the fact that it was Nuking outside and the waves were massive. We called Sexton and he assured us that he would be there within half an hour and Mikey was ahead of him. We knew we would do a few downwinders but had no idea what would be in store. with their arrival we walked down to the beach and everyone rigged up.

I was now on a 8m since my torch would not hold air for more than 20 mins at a time. I had my Totora 5'4 placebo surfboard and we all charged the downwinder strapless. I have been in some big waves in Brazil but these certainly topped them with what looked like buildings and medium houses chasing me down an endless line.

We would go on to do another downwinder after this one but after riding all day I was so beat on the second my muscles were cramping the whole way.

This was one of the most memorable days of the summer spent with some of my best friends, why cant more hurricanes just skirt our coast.

This was a short recap I am going to retouch on this subject in the coming days. Again thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed